11 July, 2016

This Week In Videogames – 10/07/2016

By
Kyle Shimmin

Having blown its collective load at E3, some
weeks back, the videogame industry’s news remains but a trickle.

Endless Publishing

Sega’s doubling down on one hand of cards,
whilst simultaneously folding on another. In it’s ongoing bid for PC strategy
game dominance, the publisher snapped up Endless Space/Legend/Dungeon developer
Amplitude Studios. And will now publish the in-development Endless Space 2.

While they continue to assail the decidedly
digital PC market, Sega make no attempts to re-establish themselves in the
European market. This week a deal with Koch Media/Deep Silver was reached, to
publish physical and digital select Atlus (a Sega subsidiary) and Sega titles
in Europe, most notably Persona 5 — phew! Although 7th Dragon III Code: VFD,
Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse were confirmed too.

Evolution Or Necromancy?

Speaking of clawing at relevance, publisher 2K
isn’t letting Evolve — that painfully middling asymmetric shooter from last
year — rest peacefully. Under the title ‘Evolve Stage 2’, the game relaunching
with free-to-play business model.

Hell it works for MMOs right?

Here’s what’s new:

“Evolve has been completely overhauled on PC
with new game design, gameplay mechanics, and improved gameplay balance and
system performance. All of the content in Evolve, including all the content
released following its launch, is unlockable in Evolve Stage 2 completely free
simply by playing the game.If you bought Evolve – THANK YOU! Seriously,
from the bottom of our hearts, your loyalty and support is what fueled us to
continue expanding and improving the game since launch. It was paramount to us
with Evolve Stage 2 that if you own or buy a copy of original Evolve on PC, your
game will automatically upgrade to Evolve Stage 2 and you will receive “FOUNDER STATUS”
in-game. ”

Check the links below for more on the Founders
Status — but again, remember it’s only on PC at the moment. And here’s an
extract from Turtle Rock’s cofounders' forum post on the relaunch:

“When people first started playing Evolve at
those and other conferences, it was magical. Sure, there was the AAA videogame
hype surrounding our title. Yeah, we also had the flashy displays, the giant
Goliath statue, and all the other things AAA games do to get people excited.
And that stuff was cool. Really cool. But, what we lived for -- what was cooler
by far -- was just seeing people play Evolve for the first time. We worked on
it for years and then, suddenly, people got to experience our game, controller
in-hand. There was genuine excitement -- real joy -- when people played. It was
like nothing they’d ever played before and watching it happen was like no high
we ever felt.

Then, when Evolve launched, the reception wasn’t
what we expected. Sure, there were some good reviews. There were also bad
reviews. Yes, there was excitement. There was also disappointment – for players
and for us. The DLC shitstorm hit full force and washed away people’s
enthusiasm, dragging us further and further from that first magical
pick-up-and-play experience.”

The Splinter Menace

A very different breed of Battlefleet Gothic
game tumbled from the Warp onto iOS devices, this week, courtesy of developer
Grand Cauldron. Battlefleet Gothic: Leviathan is a turn-based game, supposedly
faithful to the tabletop rules — for what it’s worth I believe it is, but have
never played the tabletop classic myself.

Leviathan pits the Imperial Navy against the
Tyranids in a bid to defend Baal, the Blood Angles homeward. Hopefully we’ll
shoot a video with the game this week, though that depends on my ability to fix
my desktop, so don’t hold your breath!